Something There
by Fushigi Kismet
Summary: Zoro, Nami, and cramps.


Disclaimer: One Piece is © Eiichiro Oda, SHUEISHA Inc., Viz Media, Toei, etc. This is a nonprofit fanwork.

Something There

by Fushigi Kismet

She was paler than usual, she knew it. She felt a little like she was going to be sick. Sanji tried to say something to her but she laughed him off. She really couldn't deal with small talk right now. Robin must have seen something in her demeanor because she called out to Sanji with a welcoming smile, and he twirled over in a burst of deliriously hormonal energy. Nami sent a silent mental 'thank you' her way for the distraction.

"Hey, Sanji, I'm going to take a break so can you just keep an eye on steering for me for a while?" she asked him as he fawned over Robin.

"Of course, Nami-swaaaaan!" he called back immediately.

Satisfied that someone who wasn't Luffy would be watching their progress, she made her way over to the inside of the storage room. Ugh, she felt awful. The ship swayed a little and she stumbled and would have fallen to her knees but Zoro caught her. He had to have followed her inside; she had seen him doing sit-ups out on deck near where Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper were fishing by the railing just a few minutes ago.

Without so much as a by your leave and so quickly she couldn't even let out a yelp of protest, he had scooped her up in his arms and carried her down the stairs to her room. He swept the covers off the bed and laid her gently down.

"Hey," she protested, struggling to get up despite the fact that her insides were twisting themselves into knots, "what do you thi-"

"Lie down," he told her calmly. It might as well have been an order, the way he was saying it.

She wanted to argue not because she was especially concerned that he would do something to her – he wasn't giving off any kind of dangerous vibe whatsoever - but because it pissed her off when men tried to give her orders. It brushed against things that she didn't want to think about anymore and wanted behind her. But Zoro pushed her firmly down and pain lanced through her belly so she didn't resist and instead just glared at him warily, doing her best so the pain didn't show.

That was one of the first lessons she had learned, to never show weakness or let down one's guard, and it was one of the ones she was still having trouble unlearning.

Zoro, on the other hand, seemed completely unaffected by any of the turmoil going through her mind and was instead pulling and spreading the covers over her and tucking them in around her sides.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"You're supposed to keep warm, right?"

"Don't be silly. There's nothi-"

"You've got cramps, don't you?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

She could feel herself turning bright red. "What . . . what the hell-"

"I had a friend," he said, dragging her desk chair over to the side of the bed and sitting on it backwards, facing her, "who used to get them pretty bad."

That didn't make her feel better or any less embarrassed but it did lead her to wonder what kind of friends Zoro had that he knew what to do about menstrual cramps. Also, that didn't explain how he'd noticed that _she_ was having them. She thought she'd done such a good job of acting just like normal up until just now when they'd suddenly gotten stronger. Leave it to Zoro to not miss a thing.

Still, she had to admit to herself that the blanket felt warm and comforting and she felt better now than she had a moment ago. No one had ever pampered her like this before for something as ordinary as cramps. Probably Nojiko would have, but puberty had hit while she was part of Arlong's gang and she had done all she could to grit her teeth and bear it so they would have no inkling it had even happened. If fishmen even had to deal with that sort of thing in their species. After all, the last thing she had ever wanted was to alert those violent thugs to the fact that she had become a mature woman. Bad enough that she was a girl at all. She had done all she could to distract them with her usefulness, emphasize her loyalty, and accentuate her disagreeable attitude. When it had seemed like attracting the wrong kind of attention was inevitable, she had even gone so far as to wear a binder to try and make herself as unappealing as possible. And even still-

Her muscles clenched suddenly and she was strangely grateful to the pain for distracting her from her thoughts. She didn't want to dwell on the past. What was the point? Her eyes flickered to Zoro's quiet and watchful face.

"This must seem pretty stupid to you," she muttered. "You're a guy who cuts himself to give the other guy a handicap. You tried to cut off your own feet. And here I am incapacitated by something as stupid and mundane as my own body. And I'm not even sick."

He shrugged. "You're not me. And women have different things they have to put up with."

She stared at him. "I cannot believe I just heard those words come out of your mouth."

He put his head down on his arms crossed on the chair back. "Be quiet." Then, a moment later, he said, so low that she barely caught the words, "You can't disagree with something someone tells you after she's beat the shit out of you."

Nami filed that tidbit away for future reference. A girl who could beat the shit out of Zoro? She'd almost pay money to meet her. Almost.

She opened her mouth to say at much but something about his body posture made her swallow the words. It seemed like maybe it was a sensitive topic so she'd drop it for now. "Well, thanks. For, um, getting it."

He raised his head a little at that. "You thought I wouldn't?"

"Maybe."

"Your opinion of me is a bit too low."

"No, it isn't. All the guys I knew just thought of women as . . ." She trailed off and knew he and she were both thinking of Arlong and his crew without her having to say anything further. "Well, I just haven't really had much experience with good guys. Until I met Luffy and you. So."

"So you're saying I'm a good guy?" he teased, and she knew he was trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah. You are."

He looked a little dumbstruck at the words coming out of _her_ mouth and she couldn't really blame him. She wasn't really one for compliments. In fact, she felt her cheeks burning a little from embarrassment, but she didn't really want to take the words back. They were true enough.

"Huh," he said thoughtfully, and she thought he had probably been mentally preparing himself for a fight and now all the wind had been taken out of his sails. Served him right.

But a long moment later he was still looking at her as though considering something and she felt herself looking away in confusion. Great. Now it had gotten awkward. She didn't say anything for a while, wincing as her insides rebelled. Then: "I hate being a woman sometimes."

"I'd hate being a woman too," he said, grinning. "No offense. Just not my thing."

"And I'd hate to see you as a woman," she retorted, falling easily into their regular banter. "Just think about it. Zoromi! Oh, ew, Zoro that's horrible. I don't need that image! The last thing we need is a female you!"

"Can't disagree with that."

They exchanged looks as Nami cracked a small smile and Zoro broke into a grin. Then they were laughing together.

This was kind of nice. It had been a while since the two of them had spent any time alone. Sometimes she forgot how genuinely pleasant it could be. The crew had grown so quickly that the days when it had just been Luffy, Zoro, and her seemed like a different lifetime. As much as she enjoyed the way things were now, that had been fun too, in its own special way.

It wouldn't be so bad, she thought, schooling her features to not betray the onset of another cramp, to spend a little more time together, just the two of them.

And then, because he was both observant AND knew just how to ruin things, he said: "Do you want me to go get Chopper to make you some painkillers?"

"No, don't bother him. He's with Luffy and Usopp."

Zoro seemed to consider that and let out a long sigh as he came to the same conclusion as her that letting Luffy and Usopp get wind that anything was potentially amiss would just lead to a whole lot more fuss and bother than either of them wanted to deal with. He sighed again as though coming to a decision after struggling with himself and said heavily, "Then I'll go and see if I can get that Ero Cook to make you something warm to drink."

"No, it's okay." The last thing she needed was for Sanji to know she had cramps too. It was bad enough that _Zoro_ was fussing – and _weird_ too. Really, really weird. Besides, it was a personal matter and in cases like these Nami emphatically did _NOT_ believe in the more the merrier. "I feel better."

He looked skeptical.

Whatever. It didn't matter what he thought.

"I'm going to sleep!" she declared suddenly.

He looked even more skeptical; Nami hadn't been sure that was possible.

"No," she found herself arguing, as though she suddenly absolutely needed to justify herself to him even though she _knew_ she absolutely did not, "sleeping is good. I'll just take a quick nap and by the time I wake up the pain will be gone."

"Okay, guess I'll leave you to it then," he said dubiously, starting to get up.

Instinctively, she grabbed at his hand. He looked at her fingers, and she flushed bright red, wondering at what had gotten into herself, but even still didn't let go. "Um, can you stay? Just . . . just until I fall asleep?"

There was a moment of silence, then: "Okay." He collected her fingers in his and settled back down on the chair, placing her hand next to her on the bed. He didn't let go.

She felt almost like she had when she'd been sick and burning up with fever, but she knew it had nothing to do with the current state of her body and everything to do with the firm pressure of his rough fingers against hers. Best not to think too much about it. There was no reason for her to be making a big deal over it. After all, everyone had been extremely kind to her when she had been ill, including Zoro. The crew were all just good at looking out for one another. It didn't mean anything in particular.

It _didn't_.

She'd asked him to stay and he was. It probably made him feel like he was doing something useful. After all, there was really nothing Zoro could do to stop her cramps anyway. Then a particular remedy she'd heard about popped into her head and it took all her self control not to consider it for more than a microsecond.

_Stop it, Nami!_

She glanced over at him. His expression had become extremely hard to read and she wondered what he was thinking about the myriad of emotions that had doubtlessly just played themselves out over her face in the last thirty seconds. Ugh, this was what came from letting one's guard down in a moment of weakness.

She burrowed down further against her pillows and turned her face away.

"Okay, go to sleep," Zoro rumbled as though to a small child, and she admitted to herself that her behavior wasn't much different from one. She snuck a look at him and saw that he had shut his own eyes as though he was going to take a nap right alongside her. Maybe he was. The man could sleep anywhere, after all. She found his meditative face strangely soothing.

She drew a deep breath and letting it out felt her heart rate slowing down. What had she been getting herself so worked up over anyway? They were just two crew members. Holding hands. It just meant they cared about each other. As friends do. Perfectly normal.

Another calming breath.

He would probably laugh at her if he knew what had just been going through her head. Say not to put him on the same level as that Ero Cook. Maybe he'd even be mad that she had even considered that he'd been acting extra nice. But, she thought sleepily, he really was being pretty nice. For Zoro.

She felt her eyelids growing heavy and didn't fight it. "Hey, Zoro?"

"Yeah?"

"I guess . . . thanks."

He grinned again, eyes still shut. "Guess you owe me now."

She was warm and sleepy and her insides were finally settling down a little so she didn't feel like arguing, even for show. Besides, he sounded so _boyishly_ pleased with himself it was really rather endearing. "Fine, fine, whatever." Then, feeling a bit lonely even as she said it, she mumbled, "You don't have to keep holding my hand if you don't want to."

"Right," he responded, without moving so much as a millimeter.

She swallowed down whatever feeling was trying to force its way up. "Zoro-"

"I'll still be here when you wake up, you know, so just sleep and feel better."

"I already do," she murmured softly. As she drifted off to sleep, she felt the reply of the soft brush of his thumb over the back of her hand as he repositioned it more securely in his own.


End file.
